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Aggie scientists search for signs of life on Mars
By: Nick Anthis
Issue date: 2/9/05 Section: Aggielife
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One by one, seven men and women in clumsy white spacesuits exit their protective base onto the cold and uninviting Martian surface. Steven McDaniel, their captain, observes a harsh landscape covered with jagged, reddish-brown rocks. It seems unlikely that anyone could find signs of life in such a dry and hostile place - but that is exactly what he is looking for.
McDaniel, who received his doctorate in biochemistry from Texas A&M University, is a lawyer and the founder of a biotechnology company. He is also an astronaut.
Well, sort of.
McDaniel and his team are actually on Devon Island in the Canadian Arctic, conducting a simulation of manned exploration of Mars. As a member of the Mars Society, an organization dedicated to "the exploration and settlement of the Red Planet," McDaniel led a one-month expedition in 2003 to M.A.R.S. - a clever and appropriate acronym for the Mars Artic Research Station.
The Mars Society has two research stations in areas that closely resemble the conditions on Mars. Devon Island was chosen because its location in an arctic desert closely resembles the cold and dry surface of Mars.
"It's a hobby," McDaniel said. "It's a serious hobby."
It is also a hobby with serious implications.
McDaniel's mission has many purposes, most related to survival, travel and exploration on a world tens of millions of miles away from Earth. The largest obstacle to overcome, it seems, is the fact that spacesuits are incredibly awkward, and a task as simple as picking up a small rock sometimes requires a solution that would make television's MacGyver proud.
The other purpose was to identify life forms capable of living in such an extreme environment. Recently, the prospects for such life recently became much better with the identification of an ancient Martian sea.
The rover Opportunity landed on the surface of Mars on Jan. 24, 2004. Mark Lemmon, a research scientist in A&M's Department of Atmospheric Sciences, helped monitor Opportunity and related Mars rover, Spirit.
Although Lemmon's primary job was to study Mars' atmosphere, he said, "The rovers weren't sent to study the atmosphere ... The rovers were sent to find past water, and both of them have found it."
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